HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1122
EZEKIEL 2 9
18
19
by your love of splendor.
So I threw you to the ground
and exposed you to the curious gaze
of kings.
You defiled your sanctuaries
with your many sins and your dishonest
trade.
So I brought fire out from within you,
and it consumed you.
I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.
All who knew you are appalled at your fate.
You have come to a terrible end,
and you will exist no more.”
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A Message for Sidon
20 Then another message came to me from the
Lord: 21 “Son of man, turn and face the city
of Sidon and prophesy against it. 22 Give the
people of Sidon this message from the Sovereign Lord:
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24
“I am your enemy, O Sidon,
and I will reveal my glory by what I
do to you.
When I bring judgment against you
and reveal my holiness among you,
everyone watching will know
that I am the Lord.
I will send a plague against you,
and blood will be spilled in your streets.
The attack will come from every direction,
and your people will lie slaughtered
within your walls.
Then everyone will know
that I am the Lord.
No longer will Israel’s scornful neighbors
prick and tear at her like briers and
thorns.
For then they will know
that I am the Sovereign Lord.
Restoration for Israel
25 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The
people of Israel will again live in their own
land, the land I gave my servant Jacob. For I
will gather them from the distant lands where I
have scattered them. I will reveal to the nations
of the world my holiness among my people.
26 They will live safely in Israel and build homes
and plant vineyards. And when I punish the
neighboring nations that treated them with
contempt, they will know that I am the Lord
their God.”
A Message for Egypt
On January 7,* during the tenth year of
King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man,
turn and face Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh the king and all the people of Egypt. 3 Give
them this message from the Sovereign Lord:
29
7
“I am your enemy, O Pharaoh, king of
Egypt—
you great monster, lurking in the streams
of the Nile.
For you have said, ‘The Nile River is mine;
I made it for myself.’
I will put hooks in your jaws
and drag you out on the land
with fish sticking to your scales.
I will leave you and all your fish
stranded in the wilderness to die.
You will lie unburied on the open ground,
for I have given you as food to the wild
animals and birds.
All the people of Egypt will know that
I am the Lord,
for to Israel you were just a staff made
of reeds.
When Israel leaned on you,
you splintered and broke
and stabbed her in the armpit.
When she put her weight on you,
you collapsed, and her legs
gave way.
8 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: I will bring an army against you, O Egypt,
and destroy both people and animals. 9 The land
of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland, and
the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
“Because you said, ‘The Nile River is mine;
I made it,’ 10 I am now the enemy of both you
and your river. I will make the land of Egypt a totally desolate wasteland, from Migdol to Aswan,
as far south as the border of Ethiopia.* 11 For
forty years not a soul will pass that way, neither people nor animals. It will be completely
uninhabited. 12 I will make Egypt desolate, and
it will be surrounded by other desolate nations.
Its cities will be empty and desolate for forty
years, surrounded by other ruined cities. I will
scatter the Egyptians to distant lands.
13 “But this is what the Sovereign Lord also
says: At the end of the forty years I will bring
the Egyptians home again from the nations
to which they have been scattered. 14 I will
restore the prosperity of Egypt and bring its
people back to the land of Pathros in southern Egypt from which they came. But Egypt
will remain an unimportant, minor kingdom.
15 It will be the lowliest of all the nations,
never again great enough to rise above its
neighbors.
16 “Then Israel will no longer be tempted to
trust in Egypt for help. Egypt’s shattered condition will remind Israel of how sinful she was
to trust Egypt in earlier days. Then Israel will
know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”
29:1 Hebrew On the twelfth day of the tenth month, of the
ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on
January 7, 587 b.c.; also see note on 1:1. 29:10 Hebrew
from Migdol to Syene as far as the border of Cush.